Japanese Sword - Officer's Shin-gunto

[Brian Wolfe]

Hello All,

Here is my Japanese Army Officer's Shin-gunto. It is a hand made blade and quite elegant in its design. The blade tappers along its length and the tip viewed from above the Mune (back edge of the sword) swells at the Kissaki (point). The Tsuka (handle) is also tappered and has a cast Tsuba (guard) which is solid and not pierced as many were. The Hamon (temper line) is straight which is technologically very difficult to achieve. This is an unnamed blade.

Here are the particulars of this sword,

Gendi Blade (1877 - 1945)

Early Showa c. 1935

Nihunto Suguta (blade shape): Shinogi Zukuri

Hamon (temper line): Sugu

Kissaki (point): Chu

Mune (back edge): Ihori

Nakago (tang shape): Futsu

Nakago-Jiri (tang tip): Kuri-jiri

Yasurime-mei (file marks): Sujikai

Makugi-ana: one

The mounts are Shin-gunto c. 1943-44

This was not a run of the mill blade, though not an old family blade, and would have cost the officer considerable yen.

Just a note on the Nakago (tang). If you are purchasing or have purchased a hand made blade and see that the Nakago has rusted do NOT remove this rust. It can be very important in dating an older blade. In fact removing the rust from the tang can devalue the blade considerably.

Cheers

Brian

[Brian Wolfe]

Here is the Tsuka of my Officer's Shin-gunto.

The Mekugi (bamboo peg) that attaches the blade to the Tsuka is actually too long but that is the way it was when I took over as its caretaker several years ago.

Cheers

Brian

[Brian Wolfe]

This is a view of the Tsuba (guard). I find it interesting that this officer spent the cash on a fine blade yet went with a cheaper Tsuba. This was made to look like the pierced Tsuba with the separate Seppas (washers). There are Seppa used with this Tsuba but the other more decorative styles are part of the casting. It is possible that these were added after the war in order to offer a complete sword for the market. Complete swords do sell easier than the blade alone. That is unless you are talking about ancient blades then the furniture is not as important as the blade itself.

Cheers

Brian

[Brian Wolfe]

The Kissaki (tip) of the Shin-gunto shown is the Chu shape. The photo does not show the Hamon (temper line) properly but it follows the shape of the edge all the way along to the Mune (back edge of the blade).

Brian

[Brian Wolfe]

Now for the last photo, the Hamon (temper line). The Hamon is the line produced by the tempering of the blade. In this case the shape is called Sugu. This straight line is very diffucult to produce. The Hamon in the photo is half way between the plastic pointer and the Ha (cutting edge which is the upper most edge in the photo). It looks like the angle of the blade changes at the point of the Hamon but it is as smooth as glass. The area between the Hamon and the Ha (cutting edge) is called the Yakiba (tempered egde) and is easy to see in this photo.

I hope the viewers are enjoying my Japanese sword collection, I'll post more on another day.

Cheers

Brian